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Cartsburn Tunnel (North) [E Entrance]

Cartsburn, Greenock, Renfrewshire.

Railway tunnel, active (1865-present) on the Greenock and Wemyss Bay Railway.

A 930 ft (283 m ) single bore single line tunnel was built in 1865 with an elliptical profile passing under Strone Crescent and Kilmacolm Road. The portals at each end were built in buff sandstone ashlar. A separate (south) tunnel was constructed when the rail line was doubled c. 1902.

At the end of the cutting there is a whin dyke of about 20 feet in thickness running at an angle, and here the line enters the Cartsburn tunnel, which is 285 yards long. This subterranean passage proved a work of considerable difficulty, two-thirds of the rock being bastard freestone and the remainder blue till, of great tenacity. The tunnel is 75 ft below the highest point of Bawhirley Hill, and the company considered it prudent to line it through and through with bricks, which were built with Arden lime and Roman cement - materials which have run them together like a solid wall. About one million bricks were used for this purpose. the tunnel is faced with hewn freestone at both ends, and is perfectly straight. [Friend of Wemyss Bay Station]

Alternative Names: Cartsburn Tunnel, Ingleston Tunnel

Notes: There are actually two tunnels at this location, see also the Cartsburn Tunnel (South) and two other tunnels nearby (Balwhirley Tunnel (North) and Balwhirley Tunnel South). The given coordinates are for the eastern portal of the active north tunnel. The other three tunnels are disused.